Wilder Research Homelessness in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area Assessment of current needs and services, and options for action AUGUST 13, 2007 Homelessness in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area Assessment of current needs and services, and options for action August 13, 2007 Prepared by: Wilder Research 451 Lexington Parkway North Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104 651-280-2700 www.wilderresearch.org Contents Summary............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction and purpose .................................................................................................... 6 The current situation ...........................................................................................................7 Needs............................................................................................................................... 7 Services......................................................................................................................... 13 Funding sources ............................................................................................................ 18 The adequacy of the region’s current response to homelessness.................................. 21 Summary of the current situation.................................................................................. 24 What can be learned from best practices in the field....................................................... 26 Matching needs to service delivery............................................................................... 26 How funding can be well balanced and maximized ..................................................... 34 Options for action ............................................................................................................. 42 Appendix........................................................................................................................... 47 Shelter and treatment programs included in the Wilder survey.................................... 49 Summary of findings from data sources ....................................................................... 53 Comparison of three mid-sized, Midwestern cities and their regions .......................... 65 List of references........................................................................................................... 68 Homelessness in the Omaha/ Wilder Research, August 2007 Council Bluff metro area Figures 1. Characteristics of sheltered homeless, June 2007 N=1,086........................................ 8 2. Racial and ethnic distribution of homeless adults compared to the overall adult population ................................................................................................................... 9 3. Incidence and co-occurrence of disabilities among homeless adults........................ 11 4. Services provided or made available to shelter residents ......................................... 16 5. Sources of funding for 26 emergency and transitional housing programs in the most recently completed fiscal year.......................................................................... 19 6. Sources of funding for 14 treatment programs in the most recently completed fiscal year.................................................................................................................. 20 7. Mix of emergency and longer-term shelter capacity in three regions ...................... 28 8. Pathways in and out of homelessness ....................................................................... 33 9. Comparison of Omaha/Council Bluffs sources of funding with those for a national sample of shelters........................................................................................ 34 10. Comparison of Community Planning and Development funding for Omaha and two other medium-sized, Midwestern cities ...................................................... 36 11. Potential intervention points on the pathways in and out of homelessness .............. 41 Homelessness in the Omaha/ Wilder Research, August 2007 Council Bluff metro area Acknowledgments The authors thank Patrick McNamara at the Omaha Community Foundation and his colleagues in philanthropy, and Erin Porterfield at the Metropolitan Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless (MACCH) and her colleagues in agencies providing homeless services, for their help and counsel throughout the study. We also thank the many agency and government representatives who answered surveys, hosted site visits, and participated in the homelessness forums. Patty Beech, an independent consultant whose expertise includes development and funding of housing and services for people who are homeless, graciously agreed to partner with Wilder Research. She has also been a Continuum of Care Coordinator for 10 years, and was previously a housing and policy specialist for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. Ms. Beech provided the analysis of the Continuum of Care Exhibit 1 (application for McKinney-Vento funding) that is cited in this report. Wilder Research staff who contributed to this report include: Greg Owen, Principal Investigator Ellen Shelton June Heineman Brian Pittman Karen Ulstad Ron Mortenson with additional support from: Jackie Campeau Marilyn Conrad Thalia Cooper Phil Cooper Rasheeda Curry Louann Graham Heather Johnson Bryan Lloyd Nicole MartinRogers Lynda Merkens Homelessness in the Omaha/ Wilder Research, August 2007 Council Bluff metro area Summary Background Wilder Research was asked by the Omaha Community Foundation to conduct a four- month study of homelessness in the Omaha and Council Bluffs area (April to July 2007). The primary purpose of the study is to assess current needs and identify potential strategies to support and build on the community’s response to homelessness. This report describes the findings of that study and identifies opportunities for future action. Method Multiple data sources were used in this investigation including notes from site visits and community forums, local planning and proposal documents, in-depth phone interviews with agency directors and service providers, a web survey of forum participants, and a review of published literature of effective service strategies. Findings Recent one-night estimates of the number of homeless adults, youth, and children in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area range between 1,750 and 1,900. According to the most recent survey of providers conducted by Wilder in June 2007, single men make up about one-half (48%) of the area’s homeless population. Parents who are homeless with their children (mainly single mothers) together make up another 37 percent of the population. The remaining groups include women on their own (11%) and unaccompanied youth (4%). Current information does not provide an adequate description of the area’s homeless population. The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a useful tool for enumerating and describing some aspects of the population, but enrollment in this system is incomplete, especially among emergency shelter providers. Even where participation is nearly full, however, HMIS data are of limited utility to describe the characteristics and needs of the homeless with adequate detail. Although HMIS records are still incomplete, an analysis of recent data shows that in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area, as in other major cities across the U.S., racial disparities in the shelter system are pronounced. In particular, African Americans and Latinos are substantially over-represented among the homeless compared to their numbers in the general population. This fact was not widely discussed by providers during the two public forums that preceded this report. Homelessness in the Omaha/ 1 Wilder Research, August 2007 Council Bluff metro area There is substantial evidence of good quality planning work, most recently with the Decision Accelerator and previously in the Community Development Plan (using specialty networks) prepared by the Omaha City Planning Department and the Omaha Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless (the predecessor of MACCH). While these plans identify most of the critical ingredients necessary for an effective community response to homelessness, they have been incompletely executed. Compared to other metropolitan areas of similar size, the approximately 1 to 1 ratio of emergency shelter beds to transitional and permanent supportive housing beds is unusual. During the past decade it has been more typical to hold down the growth of emergency beds and place greater emphasis on increasing the availability of transitional and permanent supportive housing units with ratios of 1 emergency bed to 2 or more transitional and supportive beds. The inclusion of residential substance abuse treatment programs as a part of the continuum of shelter services (grouped here mainly with transitional housing) is also unusual. Federal funding does not consider residents of such programs “homeless.” In planning and proposal documents from communities of similar size, these are typically not included as a primary housing resource. An analysis of current funding sources shows that, compared to other communities of similar size, private philanthropy bears an unusually large share, and that potential sources of public support (especially county and municipal government) are underrepresented in the overall mix. Potentially available federal dollars are also not being fully accessed, in part